Agora

Announcement: “In the Midst of Fire”

Concept: Paulina Yi-Yan Lee (ENG Alumna, 2015)Performance: Jack Strömberg and Paulina Yi-Yan LeeFilming: Jack Strömberg, Misael Tonars and Paulina Yi-Yan LeeVideo Editing: Gavin Long-Chung Law and Stephanie Hoi-Ling KeungMusic: Jack Strömberg English Descriptionby Gavin Long-Chung Law “In the Midst of Fire” is an introspective exploration on how nature’s dichotomies – fire and snow – can…

Announcement: New Lecture Series “Recomposing the Self”

A new exciting Speakers’ Series organised by the “Creativity, Self and Society” research group of the Faculty of Arts (香港浸會大學文學院 “創意,個人和社會” 研究組舉辦 Zoom 傑出講者系列) will consist of four Zoom talks, open to all, starting in March through June, featuring the following outstanding speakers: New style pop star Serrini, Thursday 18 March 2021 (4-5:15pm), “Compose a Self…

Announcement: ENG professor Tammy Lai-Ming Ho and ENG Alumna Cheng Tim Tim Mentioned in Tatler Hong Kong Article “7 Female Poets From Hong Kong To Know”

Tammy Lai-Ming Ho, an Associate Professor at the Department of English Language and Literature, and Cheng Tim Tim, an alumna of the department, have been named amongst the seven female poets from Hong Kong to know by Tatler Hong Kong. The other five poets are Mary Jean Chan (whose Flèche won Costa Book Award for…

Announcement: Invitation to Participate in the 21st Century Cup National English Speaking Competition (University Category) 2021

ENG/ENGED students studying at the Department of English are invited to participate in the 21st Century Cup National English Speaking Competition (University Category). The details can be found HERE. For enquiries and expression of interest, please contact Dr. Sarah Lee (sarahlee@hkbu.edu.hk) as soon as possible, and no later than Friday 26 February 2021. (Monday 8 February…

Announcement: Taking a Stand: Engaging in Public Discourse through Advanced Research and Writing 2021 Seminar Series

The “Taking a Stand” seminar series is a core component of the GE Capstone course “Taking a Stand: Engaging in Public Discourse through Advanced Research and Writing” (GCAP3056), co-hosted by the English Department and the Language Centre. The course is currently co-organised and taught by Dr Benedict Rowlett (ENG) and Dr Simon Wang (LC). In this course, students…

“Masters” by Ruth Hung

On Sunday 15 November 2020, the Department of English organised a virtual graduation ceremony for MALCS students from the Class of 2019 and the Class of 2020. Here’s Dr Ruth Hung’s speech. Dr Hung was the MALCS Programme Director of 2019-2020. Congratulations! Graduation is a time to mark and celebrate your achievements. While this [the…

Announcement: Tammy Lai-Ming Ho and Jason S Polley are Poetry Mentors for After_

Associate Professors Dr Tammy Lai-Ming Ho and Dr Jason S Polley are amongst two of the mentors for the After_ programme, which is organised by Zolima Citymag and financially support from Design Trust. The programme asked selected young Hongkongers to ‘reflect on the pandemic’s impact in prose, poetry, video and photography’: It was an opportunity to…

“Image, Text, Image & Text, and Other Textual Innovations: A List of Books” by Jason S Polley

Editor’s note: On Thursday 26 November 2020, Dr Jason S Polley took part in the discussion “Ekphrasis City Poetics: Art and Text“, which was part of this year’s One City One Book Hong Kong programme, focusing on Xi Xi and her novel My City specifically. The event was a collaboration with the Hong Kong-based literary…

“What I Am Thankful For?” by Tammy Lai-Ming Ho

Last week, I was asked by Albert Wan, friend and co-owner of Bleak House Books, to tell him what I am thankful for this year. He asked others in Hong Kong as well, such as Antony Dapiran (author of City on Fire: The Fight for Hong Kong), Louise Law (author of As If), Pete Spurrier…

“Take Control” by Magdalen Ki

On Sunday 15 November 2020, the Department of English organised a virtual graduation ceremony for MALCS students from the Class of 2019 and the Class of 2020. Here’s Dr Magdalen Ki’s speech. Dr Ki is the current Director of the MALCS programme. In a time like this, commencement ceremonies are usually held online, but good…

Announcement: Lian-Hee Wee and the Musica in Villam: Online Guqin Concert 2020

Back in the late 1980s, Lian-Hee Wee read about the Qin (aka Guqin) and was shocked to learn that this utmost important instrument to the traditional Chinese literati was (and remains) largely unknown to the ethnic Chinese community. In 2000, while in the USA, he received a newspaper cutting that motivated him to fly to Hong Kong…

Poetry Speaks: Jason S Polley’s Selection

On Shakespeare, Proust, Loss, and Longingby Jason S Polley The equally sonorous and reflective opening two lines of Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 30”, “When to the sessions of sweet silent thought, / I summon up remembrance of things past,” cannot help but conjure Marcel Proust’s inimitable seven-volume novel À la recherche du temps perdu, a title that…

Poetry Speaks: John Wakefield’s Selection

This is an anti-war, anti-group-identity song that I listened to more times than I can count during my junior high and high school years growing up in Lincoln, Nebraska. It is by the British band Pink Floyd from their album The Dark Side of the Moon. The lyrics are by Roger Waters. 1. The first…

Poetry Speaks: Sarah Lee’s Selection

What connections do we, in 21st century Hong Kong, have with a poem written by an American more than 50 years ago? An animation by the Poetry Foundation of Muriel Rukeyser’s “I Lived in the First Century of World Wars” (1968) illustrates this ingeniously by putting side by side images from 1968 and 2018, enabling…

Poetry Speaks: Emily Chow-Quesada’s Selection

The feeling of loneliness might be straightforward for some, but it can also be paradoxical. The pandemic and social distancing has kept a lot of people confined to their homes. Some find themselves literally alone while others are crowded in tiny flats with their parents, siblings, children, partners, and pets. Those are the people you…

Announcement: “Taking a Stand: Engaging in Public Discourse through Advanced Research and Writing”

The “Taking a Stand” seminar series is a core component of the GE Capstone course “Taking a Stand: Engaging in Public Discourse through Advanced Research and Writing” (GCAP3056), co-hosted by the Department of English Language and Literature and the Language Centre at Hong Kong Baptist University. The course is currently organised and taught by Dr…

Poetry Speaks: Lian-Hee Wee’s Selection

Tang Yin (1470-1524), commonly known as Tong Pak Fu in Hong Kong, was a Ming Dynasty poet. Contrary to the popular belief that he was an affluent philanderer, his talents and arrogance in his youth brought him only a miserable life, reducing him to selling pornographic paintings at brothels to make ends meet. His poems, calligraphy and…

Announcement: ENG’s Benedict Rowlett is a winner of the Faculty of Arts Performance Award in Early Career Teaching

Dr Benedict Rowlett, an Assistant Professor at the Department of English, is one of the winners of the Faculty of Arts Performance Award in Early Career Teaching. The Awards Presentation Ceremony will be held on Wednesday 26 August 2020 at 4:00 p.m. You may click here to find out who the awardees are. After many years as…

Announcement: Whip-Smart and Specialized: Hong Kong PhD Fellowship @ HKBU ENG

In a bid to recruit doctoral applicants from around the globe, this four-part series showcases Literature and Language colleagues from Hong Kong Baptist University’s Department of English. Each salon pairs two professors, who, once they’ve individually highlighted their established and ongoing research ideas/projects, open the floor to general and specific questions about the Hong Kong…

Announcement: Professor Sirkant Sarangi @ HKBU

The Department welcomed Professor Sirkant Sarangi (Aalborg University) to Hong Kong Baptist University for Department of English’s Research Postgraduate Seminar Series on “Exploring Professional/Health Communication through Discourse Analysis: Research Topics and Methods” (9-11 January 2020). Sponsored by the University Grants Committee, the HKBU Department of English Language and Literature, and the Master of Arts in…

“The Poet’s Obligations Toward Freedom” by Lian-Hee Wee

• What do I understand to be freedom in the context of politics? I am an anarchist. It took me much longer than it should have to realise that. My feelings and thoughts and values had always been what Noam Chomsky would describe as “socialist libertarian”. My understanding of that term in a nutshell is a…

Announcement: Two Students Named Finalists of the “21st Century Cup” National English-Speaking Competition (Hong Kong Region)

CHONG Michael Yat Tsun (Year 1, Faculty of Arts) and LEE Chiu Yin, Charlene (Year 3, ENG) represented HKBU in the semi-final of the “21st Century Cup” National English-Speaking Competition Hong Kong region (University Category), held at the British Council on 23 November 2019. Both of them advanced to the final, alongside three other contestants…

Our Stories @ ENG: Magdalen Ki

Our Stories @ ENG: A series in which teaching staff and students share their memories of the ENG Department to coincide with the 60th Anniversary of the department. [Read all entries.] [Revisit the “Pride of Place” series.] [Revisit the “Pet Sounds” series.] [Revisit the “Headspace” series.] [Revisit the “Ongoing” series.] [Revisit the “Interrogative” series.]…